Five years of Bethnahrin Women's Protection Forces
Five years ago, a few dozen women in northeast Syria founded the first Christian women's combat association HSNB. In the meantime, female defense forces are trained at three military academies.
For five years the HSBN (Haylawotho d'Sutoro d'Neshe d'Beth Nahrin) have existed as the first all-female combat unit of Christian women in northeast Syria. On Sunday the Women's Protection Forces, which call themselves after Beth Nahrin, the Aramaic word for "Mesopotamia", which lies between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and is a component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), celebrated their anniversary.
The HSBN were founded on August 30, 2015 as autonomous women's protection forces of the Syriac Military Council (Mawtbo Folhoyo Suryoyo, MFS) in Tirbespiyê (arab. al-Qahtaniyya). At the beginning they consisted of a few dozen women, who were supported in building up their structures not only by the MFS but also by the Sutoro (autonomous security forces of the Syriacs). Today they have a high level of combat experience, which they pass on to women at three military academies in Tirbespiyê, Dêrik and Til Temir. They have already played an important role in numerous offensives against the ISIS, including in Hol, Hesekê, Raqqa and Shaddadi. Their existence is equally crucial in the defense of northeastern Syria against the Turkish-Jihadist invasion. However, the HSBN are not only composed of members of the Christian minorities. In addition to Aramaic, Assyrian and Armenian women, a number of Kurdish women are also fighting in the association.
© Delil Souleiman
"Women were and are always the first victims of war and terror. Be it through kidnapping, murder or slavery," said the HSNB on the occasion of its five-year anniversary. The autonomous combat unit was founded to contribute to the strengthening of the role of women in Syria and thus to the defense of Christian society and its settlement areas, said HSNB spokeswoman Nisha Gewriye (also Nisha Gorie).
© Delil Souleiman
Syriacs are existentially threatened
The Christian minority in northern and eastern Syria, particularly in the Khabur Valley, is existentially threatened by the Turkish-Jihadist invasion. The attacks by Turkey and its Islamist militias aim to destroy the Syriac identity and their historical and cultural values. The ancestral population has already been displaced from more than a hundred villages in the region.
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